When the world is in upheaval, it's one of those rare occurrences when belonging to a covenant that believes in the value of suffering is actively useful.
The Crone weren't exactly caught flat-footed by Operation Prom Dress. Not that the Carthians talked or anything. The Crone have different avenues of information and spiritual contacts. Naturally, signs, portents and fever dreams are maddeningly unhelpful and many times, not entirely useful until the problem is right on top of you.
It meant different things in many different cases. It meant that not all of the Crones were caught off guard. They didn't exactly know what was happening, but the warning to take precautions was fairly clear. And if there's anything the Crones know how to do, it's batten down the hatches.
When it went south, The Crones gathered the chorus to them and in nearly every single case, sat them down, and told them the truth. It made all the difference for them. The Crones have almost always had the best relationship with the kine they are connected to. It meant far more ports to haven in when the storm finally broke.
Kindred politics was trickier of course. The Carthians had gone off the reservation. The Ordo had all but pulled up their drawbridge. The Spear had all gone seemingly crazier than usual and the Invictus had gone into crisis management mode. That, by itself, wasn't unusual, but they tried to pillory the Ordo and the Crones into guilt for not stepping up and fighting for the kindred community. (I.e. the Invictus.)
The mark of true desperation is when the Invictus demands something and no one is keen on doing it. It's not as if the Invictus has the numbers to fight a war with the Crones and all the humans too.
So, While the political turmoil continued, the Crone began to notice something unusual. The Spear had stopped bothering them and had focused almost the entirety of their efforts on the Human problem. This was, to put it mildly, unprecedented. It enabled the crones an opportunity to meet in secret and discuss what was going on, on a much larger scale than was previously possible. The Crones are normally a fractious group at best and the deleterious effects of knowing a lot of Cruac weren't spectacularly helpful for inter-covenant unity.
But an interesting thing happened. faced with a serious crisis in the mortal world and a distinct lack of a common enemy in the Kindred world. The Circle became rather more whole than it had been in a long while.
First, it was debated what all this meant and where it would all lead. The idea that seemed to win some traction was that maybe this new tribulation would mean new wisdom and was perhaps a gift from the old gods.
And this new wisdom came from the mouth of a fool. His name was Julian Mason. A gathering of Crones in Atlanta met for a discussion and it ended up being bogged down in sectarian factionalism. When finally it became too much for Julian. He stood and began ranting about "Crone this and thunder god that! My sweet goddess we might save a lot of time and thrice-damned effort if we just referred to short-hand! Sweet Lord and Lady, We bang on about the gods and goddesses to such a degree that the symbols have become damned near meaningless…Why don't we treat it that way and have done!"
This probably wouldn't have gone much farther than a sharp reprimand from the Hierophant and being run out of town…but for two things. 1) The Hierophant agreed with him. and 2) He had a blog.
"The Mason Plan" was fairly simple. A shorthand code of symbols to enable Crones to talk about religious topics without getting into specifics of practices. You can, of course, talk to your Chorus about specific religious ideas and mythology and symbology, but when talking with other Acolytes, you can simply refer to the symbols instead of the names, and no one gets their feathers ruffled.
Shockingly enough, it seems to work well. Crone leaders began to notice a syncretic drift in worship and less arguing over the names of things, and gods, and goddesses, and spirits, and so on. In truth, some of the more modern-minded Crones saw the whole mess as a barrage of Jungian archetypes anyway. This was simple for them.
While the Invictus and the Sanctified fought on every front they could find. The Crone went out and stretched their hands wide into the human communities. They had always had a foot in the door with human counter-culture movements and they saw that this might save them to a degree. They were covert, they took their time, and carefully vetted their targets before making approaches. In many cases, it went well, netting them human converts and in some cases, new fledglings. Nothing ever goes to plan completely, and if there was a problem, it was likely that the Crone saw a potential target that was worth cultivating, only to realize that Belial's Brood had gotten there first.
As the war wound down, The Circle found itself in a unique position. A covenant that had ALWAYS believed that Man and Vampire were part of the same natural cycle, and didn't seem to discriminate against its human followers. The Crones found themselves in the public eye more than they expected. Naturally, they drew criticism. Not so much from the Spear, they had their own problems. Human Christian groups found a level of outrage for vampire religions of all stripes. And Human Wicca groups found a level of distaste for the old religion that wasn't fluffy, cute, or bloodless as they had been led to believe. Atheists and skeptics didn't have much to say, Cruac tended to shut them right the fuck up.
Tonight, The Crone is in a better position politically than it has been in years in the kindred world. The Spear is few in number and mostly chastened. The Crone have certain powers and connections that cause others to seek them out and their connection to the mortal world is such that they have some real honest political power for the first time in a long time.
If there is anything that concerns them, it is the growing number of Kindred. Man and Vampire were meant to live in harmony with one another, but both Man and Vampire seem to have little understanding of the damage a rising vampire population can do. Worse, a number of those vampires embraced during the war were Acolytes or joined the Acolytes….Many of the Acolytes have heard the word from on high about limiting embraces, but do all of them heed?
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